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Blog Post: Why Should We Pay Money For Content?

With all due respect to my precious Infinity Blade downloads, it’s become a bit outdated to ask people to pay for apps these days. With so much available for free online and in app stores, customers have proven over the past year plus they don’t really want to pay for anything until they have a taste. A quick pass through Candy Crush revenues prove that.

Of course, why make them pay for anything at all? Once Angry Birds was released for Android devices with an ad-based revenue model, it quickly passed the iOS version in terms of the most profitable iteration.

Then came the “pay with a post” model. Instead of paying 99 cents for a ringtone online, just post to Twitter or Facebook as payment. If I like the brand and product, I’m willing to promote beyond even the first post or even expand my social media circle. Several blog posts have been about products that originally I tried with model.

This applies to ads as well. If premium brands will pay you for every qualified view of their product, why not let users pay for your product with the requirement of my time viewing the brands advertised?

This week, Sports Illustrated announced that they are testing this model with digital issues of their magazine. If people are willing to read their content on devices (that is much cheaper to publish I might add), why not give it to them with currency that matters most: their time.

Suddenly, the option of reading an issue of SI seems more palatable to some users and could possibly mean more in terms of revenue to the publisher.

Does it make them as much as the subscriber/advertising combo model that ruled the magazine industry for so long? Absolutely not, but we’ve known that print publishing has needed to change their expectations for some time. If this can help save their business and still generate amazing content, I’m all for it.

The revenue model your business has known for years needs to change. Regardless of how technologically savvy it is, how you generate revenue is one innovation away from being rendered obsolete. Experiment now, because if you can be a pioneer.

My name is Chris Murman, thanks for visiting my space.
As an IT consultant, I am constantly in search of ways to make the work we do better. This means bringing a lean focus to the products we make, a holistic approach to agile business processes, or an intense focus on the technologies of tomorrow.
This blog is a collection of all thoughts related to those, and many more endeavors. Come participate in the conversation with me!